World At War Round Up

So the next podcast will be coming out next week and figured you all needed something to tide you over til then so, here it is!

Over this past weekend (7/30/16) Our humble Bolt Action group (Northwest Chicago Suburbs Bolt Action, and yes, we’re working on the name) Held our first official themed event, going with Blitzkrieg, Europe pre-1943. This was a new challenge for a few of us, as we never really put any thought into early war anything (and for myself, didn’t even have a suitable army for as I play mostly mid-late war veteran Americans).
So quickly we all gathered our paints, brushes and snagged a few new mini’s (or a whole amrys worth in my case, thanks to our friend down south at NWS Online, you’re a lifesaver bud) and we all hunkered down to see what we could all come up with. So for the months leading up to the event, our facebook groups timeline was ablaze with everyone’s hobby progress, and I gotta tell you, it was really cool to have everyone working on new stuff at the same time! One of the main reasons I love Bolt Action so much is the community that surrounds it. Very few times have i found myself in the middle of a game of BA thinking to myself ‘I am not having fun right now’ no matter the game circumstances, and I largely attribute that to the players that I’ve come into contact with, many of whom I now call Friends.

Ok, enough of the mushy stuff, lets get back to the topic at hand (for those of you who listen to the podcast, you already know side tangents are par for the course, and apparently even in Blog posts).
So for my Early War Army, I chose to go with the Polish Army, Defense of Poland 1939 Theater Selector. In other words, I bought the 1000 point Polish Army Box and made a few tweaks to it and ran that, because I’m kinda lazy. Painting them up was a fun new challenge though, which took far less time than I originally thought. All in all, I painted 37 infantry, 3 team weapons, 8 Cavalry, a Tankett, and a Light Tank in about a month and a half (all in between commission work and other normal life things). Good job me (pats self on back).

My completed Polish Army w/ Display board.

So flashing forward to the event, one day tournament with pre-set matches to keep the games thematic. Players signed up for alignment (Axis-Allies) upon registration. Axis side was mostly German to no real surprise, and a Hungarian player. On the Allies, there was two Polish, French, two BEF, and a Soviet player. Here are a few snaps from the event. (Black & White pics photo credit to Aaron Schmidt, Color photos are mine)

Polish Lancers on patrol.

German Improvised MG nest.

German infantry mustering for a push on the Allied Lines.

Polish Lancers investigating shots ringing out in the streets.

German 88 on over-watch looking for targets of opportunity. Strongest gun at the event, by a lot!

German Armor pushing on French Defenders.

Forward observer’s view as he radios back the positions of advancing Hungarian light armor.

All in all, it was a pretty incredible event, thanks to tournament organizer: Seamus Hamrin for putting it all on for us. The end totals were: Axsis – 89 battle points to Allies – 237 battle points… Changing history one dice roll at a time!

Cant wait to see what theater General Hamrin picks for next year.

That’s all for now, stay tuned for thew next podcast episode and keep them paintbrushes working and those dice rolling!

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